NIS America Answers Your Ar Tonelico Qoga Questions

Remember those Ar Tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Cielquestions you asked? During NIS America’s Cave Story 3D event we also spoke with Steven Carlton, Editor, to get some answers about DLC, how Qoga was localized, and since it was "liked" so many times we sent a request for Ar Tonelico HD remakes.

For newcomers to the series, how would you get them up to speed for Qoga.

Steven Carlton, Editor: If you’re brand new to the game, I guess the main thing to know about is the history of the world. Because each of the towers is so isolated from each other that you don’t have to know what happened on the previous one to know what’s going on. What crossover there is in the third one is kind of covered by the characters interacting with the inhabitants for the third one.

All you should know going in is the destruction of Ar Ciel and the world is covered in a cloud of poison gas called Sea of Death so the only people left alive are the ones that live in towers. After that, they each kind of tell their own tale.

The Ar tonelico series is known for innuendo so what was it like working with the voice actors and actress during those scenes?

They all seem to have a good time with it. We always try to point out there is going to be some innuendo in the game going in. We didn’t really go too far, but we did have fun with all of the innuendo in the game.

I don’t know if you can say, but since you work with Gust a lot of people want to know who Rorona’s [from Atelier Rorona] voice actress is.

Unfortunately, we can’t reveal that for contractual reasons.

Is it someone we would know or recognize?

Yes, it is. She is an experienced voice actress.

Some of the European readers wanted to know if there would be bonuses in the PAL region.

That I’m not entirely sure. I don’t know exactly what our European branch is going to do with the game. So, I can’t answer this.

In Japan, there a number of Harvestasya personality packs and Binary World episodes available as DLC. Will we get those in North America?

Yes. The North American one should have, I think, all of the DLC. It’s no always the same, though. They have the Harvestasya patches that give her alternate personalities. In the original Japanese one, those were not voiced and it took the voices out of those scenes.

For us [NIS America], we recorded those voices. They’ll actually play English voices during those scenes. Although, there was an Aruru soulspace world that was an add-on, that was voiced in Japan, but wasn’t voiced in the US. We kinda switched it because we felt the other one was in the main story it would be better to have that voice so we had to make a couple of sacrifices there.

Is the DLC going to be sold separately or is any of it on disc?

I think the Harvestasya ones are on the disc. I think they may be free, I’m not sure, and they’ll unlock. The Aruru ones won’t be free or on disc.

Have the bugs from the Japanese version been fixed?

Yes, they should all be fixed. We worked really hard to that so all of the stuff from the Japanese version should be worked out for the American one.

Did you have to make any cuts or edits for the game?

No.

How do you feel about working on NISA’s "M" rated title?

I think its kind of good, in a way, because we didn’t want to change anything from the Japanese version. Pretty much the stuff that pushed it to a "M" wasn’t from the localization, it was from the original game itself. We knew our fans wanted to have that, so if it had to be "M" we’re good with that.

Can you talk a little bit about how you localized Qoga?

For Qoga, for most of the characters we kept them pretty close to the Japanese style. There were a few who we didn’t really like how the Japanese characters were so we changed them for the American version. Just because we thought, even though it was the original version of the characters, we just felt they should come across a little bit differently for the US version.

Can you elaborate?

The big one is probably Mute, she’s a huge Reyvateil. In the Japanese version, her voice would stay pretty much the same like a normal kind of girl. We felt it would be better if she spoke with a deeper voice, more aggressive, pretty much more testosterone-y.

The readers want to know what is it like working with Gust?

It’s pretty good. Each company that I’ve worked with on their games always have little quirks that make it unique to that company. I’ve pretty much worked on almost all of our Gust titles so I have a lot of experience with them. The process working with them, the big thing is, there is always a ton of text to go through compared to Nippon Ichi. But, that’s mainly because most of the Nippon Ichi games are strategy RPGs. They are more focused on the battle part and the story, battle, story. There isn’t a lot of running around, running into NPCs where you have to talk to everybody and everybody has to say something when you talk to them. There are more places for text to show up in the game.

Since you work closely with Gust, maybe you heard where they want to take the series next.

I guess they could expand into a more global community, if they decided to make a fourth one. It’s kinda hard to tell what they would do.

A number of readers put in a request for a PS3 collection for a HD remake of the previous Ar Tonelico games. Maybe you can drop Gust a line?

Hmm… that’s an interesting comment. Yeah…

That’s an interesting reply!

I guess that would have more to do with Gust since we only publish since they would have to go back and redevelop all of it. I think that would be interesting.

After Ar Tonelico Qoga, what’s your next project?

I will be working on Disgaea 4. I have also been working on some of our anime titles. I worked on Wagnaria!!, but for video games, my next one should be Disgaea 4.

That’s what they want you to believe, since they think that mentioning things such as “is the finale to an overarching plot” or “finishes some character arcs from the previous games” (both of which are true in this case, by the way) would hurt their sales.

However, some of these comments didn’t seem to me like the “keep everything as intact as possible” statement that they said in the first interview.

Croix

Some of the replies he gave here were just weird overall, but nonetheless this is one of the two games I’ve been looking forward to the most for quite a long time (the other being Radiant Historia).

Testsubject909

Pre-ordered that game too. Going to get them both!

*Puts on his Tsuna mask again*

DAY 1 BABY!!!1

Apollonis

lol yeah I feel like the lore buffs kind of psyched people out a bit in some ways.

Also good to see some DLC on there.

Ereek

Again, let me say this:

Do you know what a Reyvateil is?
Do you know what Hymnos are? (I’ll give you a tip: They’re not necessarily “songs,” they just come out that way).
Do you know the difference between an Administrator, a Beta-Reyvateil, and a Third Generation? Do you know why Beta’s are held in higher regard than Third Generations?

If you don’t know the answers to none of the above, expect confusion at some point, particularly the beginning. It has nothing to do with being a “lore-buff” and everything to do with “That’s just what the series is about.” The above three terms and phrases are what the games revolve around. It’s clear cut and is absolutely imperative for all 3 towers – the third in particular because Beta hold sway over humans.

We’re not saying you won’t understand the game. What we are saying is that there are a lot of nuances you won’t understand if you don’t read the encyclopedia in-game on Online.
Remember, this guy wants to sell his game. He doesn’t want turn off potential buyers.

Edited for typos and grammar.

Apollonis

I do know those things as I played the first game. However, lots of games have their own made-up terms, and it’s not expected that you’ll immediately know what they are the first time you hear them. Either they’ll be explained in-dialogue or comprehensible eventually from context, or you can look them up either in the in-game glossary or online if it truly bothers you. Simple.

Most of those questions you asked have rather simple answers to them as well, at least for the purposes of just being able to follow along with the story rather than getting really into it and figuring out just how stuff might work. Your tone is needlessly intimidating to the newbies, I think :)

Dont worry Ereek, even if there are people that dont know that kind of stuff, i don’t really mind, as long as they buy the game and give money to the franchise… Muahhahaa.

Still, there is a lot of people that really are into the world of ar tonelico, so is not like you are the only one that feels frustered that people cant understand how big this is xD. For me that played AT2 first and then AT1. i think something like that will happen, a lot of people, after playing AT3, might want to look at the other 2 games so they can understand more, that’s the ar tonelico effect! and it got me!

And, speaking from my experience, youre turning off people who may even be interested in the games but have no means to even explore the previous games. Its not like the game is equivalent to the 63rd episode of Lost and Im just going to be tuning into it for the first time…

Really would any of the stuff youre saying make the game terrible difficult for a newcomer to play….

Ren

It’s not really that difficult, it’s just essencial to the story. Here to make easy for you the Laconic answers for the questions above(this is not fully objective, it’s only to give an idea through few words):

A Reyvateil is a artificial human interface for the tower, they can sing hymmnos and are always female. They don’t age after puberty and some can be almost immortal.

Hymmnos is a language. It’s used to run ‘programs’ coded through feelings in the tower that manifest as magic, through songs, normally also called hymmnos. Reyvateils are born with the knowledge of this language.

The difference is a bit trickier. For short, Origins are the originals since they were the first ever made, and are the administrators of the towers, which they are fused with. The betas are clones of the Origins or other betas(cloning works a bit differently for Reyvateils, since the clones don’t look like the originals, treat them like tube children of the original beta or Origin), they are more powerful than third generations but weaker than the Origins. Both betas and Origins have a sort of code whithin the tower that may gant they some special acess to certain functions. Third generation are what happens when any kind of Reyvateil has a female child with a human. If they are born male, they just end up being normal humans. Third generation have a short life span, and need to take a Life Extension Agent every some months after around puberty to be able to keep living.

That’s the general hang of it, there are finer points, but the game will probably expain them to you(like gamma sublimated).

Testsubject909

Ultimately, it won’t affect their disbelief if they’re already ready to purchase this game to begin with. And anyhow, pending upon the flow of the story, it should work just fine as well.

And if there is an in-game library, they have open access to it and can educate themselves further into the story. If anything, if these are well present in the narrative, it only helps further to create a magical and mystical world outside of our own. So even if they do just jump into this one, they should still feel relatively marveled enough not to ponder their heads too much upon those queries.

And if they do, they have an open access to the wide world web in which case they can discuss it, learn more about it and expand the fanbase which in turn improves revenue for such games and increases the odds of us continuing to have such titles or even other titles that we’ve yet to see or only dream to gain.

So…. Really, there’s nothing to complain about too much. And the finer points of a story that may be lost in the moment, can be understood later on, which still holds marvel and opens up further discussion and discourse within the community that builds around said game or franchise.

I will say as someone who has only beaten part one, but never played part two, some of the comments do make it seem like I’m still going to be totally lost just having played the first one. But then seeing the questions Ereek asked? I know the answers to the first two and most of the answers to the third, so I doubt it’ll really be that much of a problem.

MisterDandylion

I’m ,let’s say, kind of worried about those phrases (especially “finishes some character arcs from previous games”). I sincerily don’t know if this declarations will or will not affect the overrall decision of buying this game.

I personally only played through the second entry of the saga (Even though I was HIGHLY recommended to go through the first).

I’m really interested about this entry and I would really llike to see more of the Artonelico Universe. But if this is the end (of the trilogy I suppose)… well Let’s say this games will be in my memory for a while ;)

The question that’s burning my mind is: why that girl Finnel looks like Cocona for AT2? I guess there’s only one way to find out :)

I’ll clear that question right now. Finnel was born in Sol Cluster, is a Beta-Pureblooded Reyvateil and doesn’t have any relationship whatsoever with Cocona.

Cocona indeed appears, but only once you have advanced somewhat in the plot.

MisterDandylion

Sol Cluster…? MMMM jeez man my Ar Tonelico knowledge is sure rusty…

All I remember is Jacqli entrusting Cocona with a mission to Tyria’s tower. A mission so important that would define the fate of ,not also the regions around the Towers at the balance, but the fate of the very Ar Ciel itself :O

Is not rusty, is just that we don’t know yet xD, Sol Cluster is the third’s game region… like the continent’s name for where the 3rd tower is.

And yeah, i think Jacqli made Cocona go there for some reason i dont know because if she got too far of, i think the first tower, that would make her die… (this last part im not sure, im sure aquagon knows this part perfectly).
But as far as the reason goes, we will know when we get AT3

That’s exactly the reason. Sol Cluster is on the opposite side of the planet from Sol Ciel and Metafalss, and if a Beta or Origin goes too far away from her Tower, her Triangular Nuclear Loop (a mechanism that acts as her heart) will shut down, and her body will melt away into water, thus killing her. Not to mention that the range of the First Tower, even with the extension that Sol Marta gives to it, doesn’t cover beyond a third of the planet.

That was the reason why Jakuri gave Cocona that mission, instead of going herself.

HarryHodd

Day one Baby!!

shy_mel

I am ready for this game!

john411

Are they talking about the English VA for Rorona, or the Japanese VA as the one who cannot be named?

Well a truly talented VA would have a role in which their voice would be unrecognizable from their other roles, allowing them to transcend the ranks of other VA’s who have the same voice for every role they voice…

Testsubject909

Even if they did recognize her voice. It would still be nothing but assumption.

Considering all the talk up above about unionized work, assumptions would not be enough to target her. And non-disclosure clause would protect her further.

So… Don’t worry about it. Anyways, the fans will figure it out soon enough anyhow, so that you would know who to (most likely) praise or detest.

Apollonis

What does that mean, though, why the heck would someone contract you to not give them any credit? I suppose it could be something like some companies wouldn’t find recognizable voices desirable. Voice actors are weird.

I dont know you make it seem like it is a strange occurrance. Some actors in popular movies do the same thing, like in Sherlock Holmes (2009), do we not know who voiced Professor Moriarty…Though perhaps its the person choice at the end of the day (maybe she was embarrassed for voicing the role of Rorona?)

Ren

It’s Union stuff. From what I understand, the Laconic version is Union VA can’t do non-union work, so if they do, they go uncredited so they can’t be accountable and to steem away any problems that might come with the Union having proof they did a non-union work. I can be wrong, actually, I don’t even know what this Union is about, I just said what I saw someone explaining in this site before.

I’m not sure if any of those on that list are familiar to you but Central Única dos Trabalhadores is the only one with a full entry and it says it’s the main union in Brazil.

Ren

I never heard of any of them before, but futher searching showed they are called ‘sindicato’ here, a word that I’m at least familiar. Man, I know I had bad at this vacation when written portuguese feels strange for me. That’s what happens when you only use it when talking.

Guest

The English VA is Julie Maddalena. How have people not figured that out? Just google some random clips from the Rayearth dub, Tenchi in Tokyo, or whatever, and you’ll immediately be able to tell that it’s her.

Her voice is fairly distinct, and old school anime fans should have no trouble recognizing her. She just doesn’t do a lot of VG work, which may be why all the gamers think Rorona is voiced by some mystery actress.

Hm, could be. I’ve heard precisely one role from her. And that must have been over ten years ago.

kariohki

English, probably, because of the voice actors unions and stuff. Her Japanese VA is Mai Kadowaki, it seems.

Ereek

I really don’t agree with his background statement, but I’m a huge Ar tonelico fan, and am in love with the lore, so things like this matter to me more than someone who is just playing it for innuendo, fanservice or the Cosmosphere system.
To me it feels more like he’s saying that simply because he doesn’t want to scare off potential buyers by saying “The world is fully developed and there are a lot of terms you won’t understand at first.”

There were a few who we didn’t really like how the Japanese characters were so we changed them for the American version.
I have a feeling this comment is going to terrify some of the purists out there. I don’t think they actually made any drastic changes, but just the way it’s worded makes it sound worse than it is.

Interesting interview, some of the answers are a bit less in-depth than I would have liked, but still interesting. I love that they voiced the extra DLC personalities.

Neckbear

Hm, I’d honestly say that, aside from terminology and history (which was mostly developed in sideworks, anyways), you can easily play ATQ as a standalone game.

As I mentioned before, hell, most of the actual history wasn’t really fully explained in the games to begin with. Worst-case scenario, and if you’re truly interested in it, you can simply read up the AT Wiki or something of the likes.

You can’t really say he’s wrong, honestly.

On-topic with the article, I wonder how much the non-free DLC will cost.

Ereek

Oh, absolutely you can. I wasn’t trying to imply you can’t. I just think you should look up information first or expect some confusion. Just look at the official site. That throws around terms without any explanation at all. It also gives a completely inaccurate definition to already-defined terms. The game does the same thing by just tossing terms at you.

Either way, you’re going to not know what some words mean. And if you don’t know what some words mean, the conversation won’t make any sense.

Neckbear

And that is when you simply:

Option one; Ignore it!.

Option two; research!

Also, doesn’t ATQ have an in-game encyclopedia of sorts? I can easily see people being confused like they were in FFXIII, with weird, funny-sounding words being thrown around…

Then again, I think many terms are somewhat…easily understandable (?). In my first time playing through Ar Tonelico, research of any sort not done, Reyvateils were simply those weird girls that can sing songs, Grathmelding was Alchemy/Crafting with another, weirder name; you get the idea.

Sure, there’s an actual, deeper meaning to those words- however, that can easily go over your head- even in the first game.

…Of course, this is assuming I’m not forgetting anything, such as some kind of in-depth explaination of the examples I gave being done in AT1.

Ereek

Your comparison to FFXIII is perfect. That’s exactly what I would compare it to. Words are just tossed in there like you’re expected to understand them. Even if you read the encyclopedia it’s a bit confusing at first, since they’re used so often and new words are introduced while you’re still trying to wrap your mind around the old ones.

But otherwise, sure, I’ll agree with that. My first run through Ar tonelico was that “Oh, look magical singing girls” until about the 3/4 point. Misha’s story didn’t really make a lot of sense until later when I realized she was created and what exactly Reyvateils were.

My entire point here is that you probably will have to do some reading if you want to understand what’s going on beyond face value. And yes, there’s an in-game encyclopedia. Not as in-depth as some other games, but its there.

I dont think something like that could ever happen anyway xD, the HD remakes we get are from really, really big and famous games or from a big company.
I dont think Gust is yet capable of that, and i’d prefer they get on working with new games :)

I’ve never heard of Sanzaru games, and as far as i can see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S… Their games can’t be compared (when it comes to ammount of stuff in the game, because normally rpgs have a lot of things) to one of the most bigger, giant, rpg games from GUST, i can’t imagine how much to work would be work in Ar Tonelico…And it seems that Sly Cooper is an plataform/action game so.. yeah, is easier to remake this kind of games i think.Actually, has there actually be a HD remake of any rpg?And they have made some ports too.. uh? seems they worked with clank’s games, that’s a big one

No, there hasn’t been any HD remakes of any RPG’s as of yet, but I think it would be a bad idea. I don’t see how it’d be any more difficult since you’re basically just reprogramming the existing assets in a higher resolution and adding trophies.

Plus, there’s definitely a market for these type of games. It’s not a huge market. Won’t do Call of Duty numbers, but within the RPG niche, I can see an Ar Tonelico collection or a Mana Khemia collection actually selling pretty well, especially for people who missed out on them on PS2.

Atelier Iris Trilogy, Mana Khemia 1&2, Disgaea 1&2, and Ar Tonelico1&2. I’d buy it for PS3 even though I already have all of them. upscaled graphics, better audio quality, new DLC add-ons, and have it fix to the bugs in the PS2 games. I’d love to have them. Even as a download only thing. :D

I never played Cross Edge. I heard bad things about it even from RPG liking reviewers. But I did play Trinity Universe. Another combo game with the charas from NIS, and GUST. That was pretty fun the battle system was all about making combos. But it was mostly a Dungeon Crawl so if that’s not your thing I’d get why you wouldn’t like it. Still pretty cool though it had two stories in it with two different main charas. One story focused more on NIS charas and the other focused more on GUST charas. But it didn’t have any recent Atelier charas in it. You know like the charas from Atelier Iris and Mana Khemia.

Cross Edge was decent, that is when you install data onto your HDD. I played the game without installing and the slowdowns were hell, and this is a sprite based game.

I never played Trinity Universe, but it seems like the base gameplay is the same. Get into battles, execute awesome combos, profit. I can click with the game, but the menu navigation is a disaster (for me).

If you can find it priced decently, might want to give it a try

Zero_Destiny

Cool :D I’ve heard some things but I always did want to get it. I just might give it a shoot in the future. Not now since there’s so many awesome releases but maybe later. I’ve seen the game at my Gamestop for like $20 too, so if it’s really is an OK game I won’t feel ripped off.

The only negatives I can say about Cross Edge is that the battle system is very complex without the game really telling you what to do properly (but once you figure out how to work it and do combos, it’s very fun) and that the loading times are AWFUL if you don’t install. Otherwise, I loved it. Compared to Trinity Universe, the story is a lot more serious and there’s a lot more exploring to do (in fact, you can’t really progress in the story if you don’t constantly explore), but it was neat to see characters from Ar Tonelico, Mana Khemia 2, Disgaea, and Darkstalkers all in the same game. It made me want a Darkstalkers RPG, actually.

Xeahnort

“After Ar Tonelico Qoga, what’s your next project?

I will be working on Disgaea 4. I have also been working on some of our anime titles. I worked on Wagnaria!!, but for video games, my next one should be Disgaea 4.”

So that means we won´t see Atelier Totori anytime soon :(

———————————–

Great interview, as always.

Zero_Destiny

There’s been no announcement for Atelier Totori yet but I wouldn’t start worrying too much since Disgaea 4 was already announced for a summer release (I think like September) and it’s NIS’ big game series so it always gets more attention.

Why would you expect Totori so soon? I thought most people would expect it at September or later…

Croix

Also, correct me if I’m wrong on this line of thinking, but it seems to me like he answered that question from a personal standpoint, and I got the feeling that there might be someone else who will be working on Totori. Maybe this is just wishful thinking on my part though.

While it was a long read and I seem to understand reason for Metafalica now. The entry doesn’t deal with the actual plot of the game. How much more info am I needing to fully get AT2 and for that reason AT1.

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